Emily Dickinson

“The Brain—is wider than the Sky—”

Poem 598 ("The Brain—is wider than the Sky—"), c. 1862

Documented source

Attribution

Emily Dickinson

Source

Poem 598 ("The Brain—is wider than the Sky—"), c. 1862

In full

“The Brain—is wider than the Sky—”

Status

Public domain in the United States

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About this line

Written around 1862, this is Dickinson at her most audacious. In a few short lines she sets the mind against the sky, then the sea, then the weight of God — and finds it wider, deeper, nearly the same. A claim about the sheer capacity of human consciousness, made without apology.

Why we carry this line

This one didn’t whisper. Your mind, wider than the sky — that’s a huge, almost cocky thing to claim, and she just says it flat out. I loved the nerve.